We got our first EV in 2013, and since 2018 we drive two EVs. This month we reached a quarter million miles driven in our EVs – that’s 250,000 electric miles over the past 12 years.
We drive 39 miles a day. We are pretty much average drivers for the US, logging 39 miles a day in our EVs. Again, these are average numbers.
96% of the time we drive locally. The bulk of our driving is commuting to work, driving the kids to school / practice / games, and driving around town for chores. These trips take up 96% of our driving time.
4% of the time we drive our cars on vacations. About 2 weeks each year we drive our cars on summer vacations and long weekends out of town. This represents only 4% of our time, but adds up to more than 15% of our total mileage.
Our EVs take us to memorable places. Out of town trips included visits to National Parks, state parks, campgrounds along the California coast, cities, countless trips to the Bay Area, and other places of interest throughout California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. We haven’t yet gone cross country in our EVs, but we get around a bit.
EVs don’t restrict travel. A reliable and rapid DC charging network has allowed us to go to all of the places we’ve wanted to visit without cramping our style. Charging an EV doesn’t slow you down. 15-20 minute charging stops every 150-200 miles gives us a chance to stretch our legs, get a drink, a bite to eat, and have the kids burn off some energy. We’ve driven over 800 miles a day with our kids without problems.
We saved money on fueling costs. The combination of switching to cheaper electricity to power our cars, and installing rooftop solar saved us money. We traded in a Toyota Corolla for the Rav4 EV in 2013, traded a Toyota Prius for the Model 3 in 2018, and replaced the Rav with a Model Y in 2020. Switching from 2 relatively efficient gas powered cars to much more efficient electric cars produced a large net savings.
Rooftop solar offsets our electricity use and saves money. In 2017 we paid $17,000 for a 6.2 kW rooftop solar power system. This was kind of like prepaying for gas, but way better. Our rooftop system offsets all of the electricity we use in our home and for charging one EV. The money we’ve saved by not buying gas for our EVs and not paying for home electricity since 2013 = $35,000. Subtract the $17,000 we paid for installing solar and we have net savings of $18,000 over 12 years.
My wife’s business perk covered charging at work until 2023. If we had paid PG&E rates for charging my wife’s EV, we’d still have a net positive of $6,500. All in all, the money we saved by not paying high prices for gas, and not paying for home electricity, allowed us to pay off our solar system in 6½ years. It continues offsetting the bulk of our energy use at home. (For those interested, here’s the numbers on money saved).
YMMV. Payoff times will likely vary.
EVs greatly reduce emissions from driving. Driving electric over 12 years produced a big drop in emissions from our driving. The graph below demonstrates the large difference in pollution produced by driving gas powered cars compared to our EVs. A large SUVs releases over 1 pound of CO2 into the atmosphere for every mile driven. In contrast, our EVs released 0.14 pounds per mile driven. That difference would add up to a significant drop in CO2 if applied to the 300 million drivers in the US.
Carry that weight. Another way of thinking about the pollution we make through driving, and how EVs can reduce emissions, imagine the following: You have to carry the weight of CO2 you produce from daily driving. Each day the average person drives 35 miles. The large SUV releases over 1 pound per mile, ~37 pounds per day. Our EVs less than 5 pounds a day. 37 pound may not sound huge, but imagine putting that weight in a backpack and carrying it around all day. That weight on your back is what we are personally pumping into the atmosphere every day.
In this scenario the 57 MPG Prius releases about 11 pounds of CO2 per day, the 40 MPG hybrids about 16 lbs, and the 25 MPG car ~25 lbs a day. 5 pounds is not zero emissions, but it’s an improvement. Increasing renewable energy to power our grid will drive that number down.
Final point. The CO2 we pump into the atmosphere every day doesn’t go into a hypothetical space we don’t have to think about. The average car in the US gets 25 MPG, multiple that 25 pounds a day by the 300 million cars in the US, and the hundreds of millions of cars around the world, and the daily CO2 number rises dramatically. We can change that.
